Clinic Week

A lot has happened in one week. I am now a seasoned clinician after our first clinic. Ok, maybe that’s stretching it a little. I know longer shake in my boots at the thought of clinic, because I know what it involves and it’s not all that bad. Sunday we packed all our meds and supplies into the truck and headed to Los Brisas (sp?), a community about 20 minutes from Pucallpa. Clinic was set up as quickly as possible in a new house in the community. Dental took the campaign tent where evangelistic meetings were held at night, and Medical took the house. There were two rooms. The smaller one was the consult room for the doctor and OR for the minor surgeries we performed throughout the week. The other one was the pharmacy/everything else. We had five tables lining the walls and grouped analgesics, antibiotics, antihistamines, shots, creams, vitamins, and BP meds together for greater ease and fewer errors in dispensing meds. Then clinic began.
The first day was crazy because no one really knew what we were doing. We had to rely on Jenni a lot to explain meds and answer questions. But, by day two we had the process down pretty well, and every day improved more. Here´s the way our days went: Up at 6 to take down our tents which we set up inside the house and pack everything into the truck for safe keeping. Breakfast, worship, and then triage began. I took blood pressures and then headed back to help in pharmacy. Kristin took complaints, kid´s weights, and temperatures, sorting out people who only needed Abendazole for worms and vitamins from those who really needed to see the doctor. The rest of us (minus the dentist, Laura, Manuel, and Brent, who were in dental) were in pharmacy, filling prescriptions as patients filed out of the consult room. We also gave shots, pulled out stitches, and bandaged wounds. This week we also got to give a couple Lasix shots IV for sky high BPs and an IV for major dehydration. Medical alone treated 70 patients in the morning and 70 in the afternoon, and dental averaged about 50 patients a day. By the end of the day we were all exhausted, but the work was very rewarding. And it was evident that the people appreciated it and needed the medical attention.
We saw some sad situations this past week as well. A few stand out. A lady came through with her kids, and was standing in line for pharmacy. I noticed tears in her eyes, and I wondered what had happened in the consult room. As she waited for help, Jenni filled me in on her situation. She has terminal liver cancer, and doesn´t have much longer to live. She has five little children. One is still breast feeding, but she can´t breast feed it, so it is lacking nutrition it needs to survive. We were able to buy the vitamin supplement the baby needs and give it to her, but it will take a miracle to stop the cancer. Another man came through who had had some type of colon resection surgery performed by a local surgeon. The doctor had simply left what was supposed to be a temporary stoma after the surgery, and now that mans intestines are literally hanging in a plastic bag outside his body. It’s horrible how a doctor who is supposed to make people better could leave someone like that. We are trying to raise money so he can have surgery performed to fix the stoma. We also removed a golf ball sized tumor from the head of a young man. It was just hanging off his head on his left temple, and it looked like a large melanoma. He took it to have it biopsied, and I don´t know the results. Even though it was nice to removed it for cosmetic reasons, it ´s sad to know that it could be cancerous, and if he had access to medical help sooner, it might have been prevented.
My favorite part of clinic was actually taking blood pressures. I got really good at taking them, which is a good skill to have (thank you Southern for that stupid nursing skills bag I never used in school – the BP cuff has really come in handy in the mission field). It was not as high stress as pharmacy, and I actually got to communicate and interact with the people more, which is what I enjoy the most. I felt like even though I wasn´t doing a whole lot, just being able smile and ask how they were doing was really nice. It was nice to see the different faces, ages, and poverty levels. It made me realize that no matter where you go or what people you come in contact with, everyone is alike in that we are all the children of the Lord and loved so much by Him. These Peruvian people are all hungering and searching for the love of the One who loves them more then they can comprehend, and they deserve all the love and kindness we can give them. They are no different then you and I in that respect, and I am learning to truly love them as a people.
Well, that´s all for now, folks. On to our next big adventure. Well, at least for Kristin and I. For the next six weeks we will be immersed in our Healthy Families program in the community where we did the clinic. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to grow everyday in our new jobs. God bless!